


Cry of One Thousand Cicadas

by quiet_or_die



Series: One Piece Drabbles [1]
Category: One Piece
Genre: BAMF Tashigi, Crying swords are hard to ignore, Gen, Not Beta Read
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-08
Updated: 2020-05-08
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:14:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24065659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quiet_or_die/pseuds/quiet_or_die
Summary: I'm finally actually contributing to this wonderful fandom! Why do a summary when you can do a story omake?Omake:Ace: Hey, can you—stop shooting, it’s not doing anything anyway—can you take this thing?Tashigi: *gasp* Could it be, is that—? *stars in eyes*Smoker: //about to demand a Buster Call on his own ship or throw everyone into the ocean// What is going on. Explain. Now.
Series: One Piece Drabbles [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1744621
Comments: 8
Kudos: 33





	Cry of One Thousand Cicadas

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you, Sophia (https://www.fanfiction.net/u/11036954/Sophia-Mendes-Coruja) for being a sweetie and getting me to actually write and post stuff. And thank you, Cassie, for your continuous support.
> 
> (Originally this story was posted as Chapter two of "One Piece Drabbles." And then I remembered AO3 does this amazing thing where you can tag different stories as a series. . . . Sorry for any resulting confusion.)
> 
> *I do not own One Piece, nor am I receiving any profit from the writing and posting of this material.

This is seriously stupid. 

Oh sure, Ace can be reckless at times. He’s confident in his abilities and stubborn when he makes his decisions, he has a devil-may-care rebellious streak that’s as wide as the Whitebeard tattoo on his back, and his short temper and the fact that he can’t ever bring himself to run away even when it really would be the smarter option . . . well all of these things mean that he’s backed himself into more than a few corners. However, he is not generally one to be _stupid_ (you might be able to be a stupid captain, for a time at least, but you don’t get to be a stupid captain on the Grandline, and you certainly don’t become the Commander of Whitebeard’s second division by excelling at stupidity). But this? This is stupid. This is actively looking for trouble, from a guy that’s definitely going to return trouble in spades. And Ace may be the ace of spades, but he doesn’t exactly want the rest of the card suite thrown at him in the form of seastone, iron, and smoke. 

Nonetheless, here he is, approaching a marine ship, and not just any marine ship, but double-cigar-smoking-vendetta-carrying-Smoker’s marine ship. Because of course they had to be at sea. Of course Ace can’t have a chance to try to have this encounter kept between him and the woman he’s actually here to see. Of course he can’t just ignore this damn hunk of steel that’s been crying and shrieking at him since fate decided to be a dick and deal him yet another losing hand.

This is seriously stupid.

“Captain Smoker!” The door slams open, making a vein appear on the mentioned Captain’s forehead. “Portgas D. Ace has boarded the ship!!” The vein grows larger.

“What?” Smoker growls around two freshly-lit cigars, even as he gets up and heads to the deck. Who the hell does that brat think he is? Whitebeard or not, such an arrogant move won’t go unpunished. “And how the hell did he do that? What idiot is on lookout?” Someone’s definitely getting fired over this. On open sea like this, Portgas should have been spotted long before he could get close enough to board. The marine is trying to splutter out a reply, but Smoker is already turning to another marine, “Where is Tashigi? Get her, now.” At least this marine is quick on the up-take, turning and running down the hall after a quick salute. Finally, Smoker reaches the main deck and Portgas D. Ace has indeed boarded the ship, though he’s smart enough that he’s only gone as far as the ship’s railing, where he’s crouched, obviously trying to seem casual despite the tension in every line of his body. Every marine on deck has him in the crosshairs of their sights, not that guns will help against a logia user like him.

“Not only do you not have a problem eating in public, apparently you don’t have a problem boarding a marine warship, Portgas D. Ace.” Smoker growls, hands already turning to smoke, but the damned brat holds out a finger, like he’s actually going to ask for a moment of time, like he thinks Smoker cares to listen to anything he has to say.

“Your subordinate . . . Tashigi? Where is she?” 

And that, that actually gives Smoker pause. Catches him off guard enough that he parrots the name Tashigi back to Portgas like a dimwit before recovering himself. “That’s none of your business.”

Of course, that’s when Tashigi bursts on deck with her impeccable timing. “Captain Smoker—I heard—” Her voice trails off upon spotting Ace and with a ring of steel her katana is in her hands. 

“Tashigi, right?” Portgas says, attention immediately turning to the woman, and it grates on Smoker’s nerves that he’s being ignored but it also makes him . . . not hate the pirate completely. There are far too many people in this world, marine and pirate alike, who don’t give Tashigi so much of a glance unless it’s for the disgusting purpose of checking her out, and there is none of that in Portgas. No, his eyes meet her eyes and stay there. And Smoker waits, both because he wants to see how Tashigi handles herself and because he is reluctantly curious despite himself now. 

“Yes?” Her reply is made of the same steel as the blade in her grasp, her whole being radiating only cool confidence. Smoker is not sure he’ll ever quite understand the 180 turn she makes as soon as her weapon of choice is drawn (and her glasses are in place). 

“You collect swords or something, right?” 

Tashigi blinks in surprise, and she’s certainly not the only one. What is this pirate brat up to?

Portgas Ace reaches for a strap slung over his shoulder, and everyone tenses, but the pirate is making sure to broadcast his every move and so the tension doesn’t slip off the edge of the knife it’s been balancing on since the pirate showed up. And it’s a sword Portgas is holding in two hands, as if he wants to offer it up. 

Tashigi looks at the sword, studying the hilt and sheath with narrowed eyes, and as good as she is, even she can’t fully judge it without seeing its blade, but that’s not where her focus should be right now anyway, and she’s learned this because her eyes snap back up to Portgas’ face and her stance never wavers. 

“Look,” Portgas says, and he’s actually looking quite awkward now. “I met Mihawk once and made the mistake of asking about swords and he told me all kinds of stuff that I don’t really remember, about things like _yakiba_ and _hamon_ , but one thing he said stuck out to me, something about how a sword should be treated with respect because they also have souls and that’s why swords can become cursed and I didn’t really understand at the time, I still don’t really get it, but there was this low-life pirate that challenged me the other day and, this is going to sound so crazy I swear, but his sword was . . . crying? And I don’t know anything about swords so like I didn’t really plan on taking it, but I couldn’t just leave it there. Because it sounded like, it _sounds_ like words almost. It just feels like, like it wants to go home.” 

The pirate finally takes a breath and trails off and he is definitely embarrassed. There’s a flush to his cheeks and he’s shifting his weight, and here Smoker didn’t think this pirate had any expression other than the one he’d privately labeled “insufferable ne’er-do-well.” And as much nonsense as Portgas just spouted (Smoker’s not a sword person either) there’s some interesting tidbits for Smoker in there. Like how this pirate referred to another pirate as a “low-life.” Not to mention that Portgas apparently met Mihawk and got along well enough with him to have an actual conversation. Something Tashigi also caught, of course. And even though Mihawk is a warlord, he is also a pirate. Of course, even though he is a pirate he also holds the title of the best swordsman, and Smoker knows Tashigi would love nothing more than to demand that Ace tell her everything he ever heard the swordsman say. 

“Anyway, I’ve heard something about how you take swords from pirates and try to return them to their proper owners, or something like that. Is that . . . something you do?” 

Tashigi opens her mouth to respond, but stops herself and looks at Smoker. Her stance relaxes on seeing that he’s no longer using his Devil Fruit powers. He rolls his fingers at her in a “go-ahead” gesture and she gives him a sharp nod in return then smoothly sheathes her sword. As Smoker turns to tell his men to stand down, for now, she approaches the pirate. 

“That is something I do, yes. May I?” She holds a gloved hand out and Portgas looks relieved as he hands the sword over. Tashigi’s eyes on the other hand widen and she almost drops the katana. Smoker’s never seen her react like that to a sword so he makes no attempt to hide the fact that he’s watching both of them. 

“I . . . see what you mean.” Tashigi murmurs. Her other hand raises and strokes along the still sheathed sword, with an air of a mother quieting a child. After a few moments, she draws the blade and lets out a low gasp. “This is . . . one of the 21 named.” She murmurs. She spends a few moments admiring the blade silently until Ace shifts his weight and Smoker clears his throat at the same time. Sheathing the blade, Tashigi looks back to Portgas. “I will ensure that this katana is returned to its proper place. This is a very valuable sword that has been missing for some time.” She pauses briefly, hands tightening slightly around the sheathed blade in her hands. But she knows her own brand of justice regarding swords so the words come out sincerely. “Thank you for bringing it to me.” 

Portgas D. Ace nods and then they all spend a moment standing around in this truly odd moment. 

“Ah, well, sorry for imposing. I’m glad you can do something about that katana.” 

Smoker is actually considering just letting Portgas go without too much of a fuss when the brat adds, with that insufferable ne’er-do-well expression of his, 

“Well, guess I’ll see you around . . . Smokey.” 

And well, it’s easy enough for things to go back to how they should be after that. 


End file.
